Imagine, if you will, a new society: a society based on social ‘stability’, instant gratification, and promiscuity. This is the basis for Aldous Huxley’s novel, Brave New World.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Pregnancy is disgusting and taboo. This is ingrained in your mind your entire life. New lives are no longer formed in the natural way. Bottles, chemicals, pre-determined lives. They’ve got this down to a science; literally. For those embryos destined for a lower caste, there is a process called Bokanovskification. In this process, each fertilized egg is forced through radiation and extreme cold to divide and bud, creating more than 96 total fertilized eggs. Each of these eggs produces a person. All the resulting humans from a bokansovskied egg are identical.
The society itself consists of 5 castes, each with a ‘plus-minus’ sub-caste. These are the different levels, going from the highest to lowest: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Epsilon. Everything in this civilization is based on your caste. As an Epsilon embryo, part of your oxygen is withheld. This causes future mental impairment: a stupid Epsilon is a happy Epsilon. In childhood, even the color of your clothing is based on your caste. Through a ‘conditioning’ process (including mild electric shocks, so as to produce an association of pain with a specific object) and hypnopaedia, each person is bred into the ideas that the government wishes them to believe. These are a few examples:
‘Everybody’s happy nowadays’ starts at age 5
’Never put off till tomorrow the fun you can have today’-200 times, twice a week from 14 to 161/2
‘Progress is lovely’-500 times, once a week, age 13 to 17
The entire civilization is based on instant gratification, too. If you’re feeling unhappy, take a gram or two of soma, the miracle drug. If you want somebody, take them. If your clothes are getting worn out, buy new ones; don’t mend the other, old ones. The thought ‘I want and can’t have’ is almost never experienced.
Being with one person for too long is greatly frowned upon. The very idea of marriage, love, and passion are grotesque. Multiple partners in one week or even one night is extremely common, and considered the norm. After all, as these people believe, ‘Everyone belongs to every one else’.
SUMMARY
The story itself follows a woman, Lenina Crowne, and a man, Bernard Marx. Both are workers at the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Center. Lenina is a properly promiscuous and pretty woman, who is sought after by short, physically under-par, unorthodox Bernard. The world treats Bernard with distain, and Bernard reciprocates the feeling; Lenina, however, finds him sweet, and agrees to go on a date with him. On their visit to a ‘Savage Reservation’ in New Mexico, Bernard and Lenina find an extremely unusual coincidence. A ‘civilized’ woman named Linda was lost long ago amongst the Savages, and remains with her son, John. John has never been outside of the reservation, being born (actually born) there. Lenina and Bernard bring the pair back to London with them, and there is a tremendous shift in the lives of Bernard, Lenina, Linda, and John. The boy, about the age of 18 is both awed and disgusted at this Brave New World.
WOULD I RECCOMMEND THIS BOOK?
I would highly recommend this book, but only for someone with a strong stomach and an open mind. Many subjects brought up in the book are uncomfortable ones; ones that our society prefers to not talk about. Extremely powerful, this book will keep you questioning your way of life and all ways of life
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Pregnancy is disgusting and taboo. This is ingrained in your mind your entire life. New lives are no longer formed in the natural way. Bottles, chemicals, pre-determined lives. They’ve got this down to a science; literally. For those embryos destined for a lower caste, there is a process called Bokanovskification. In this process, each fertilized egg is forced through radiation and extreme cold to divide and bud, creating more than 96 total fertilized eggs. Each of these eggs produces a person. All the resulting humans from a bokansovskied egg are identical.
The society itself consists of 5 castes, each with a ‘plus-minus’ sub-caste. These are the different levels, going from the highest to lowest: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Epsilon. Everything in this civilization is based on your caste. As an Epsilon embryo, part of your oxygen is withheld. This causes future mental impairment: a stupid Epsilon is a happy Epsilon. In childhood, even the color of your clothing is based on your caste. Through a ‘conditioning’ process (including mild electric shocks, so as to produce an association of pain with a specific object) and hypnopaedia, each person is bred into the ideas that the government wishes them to believe. These are a few examples:
‘Everybody’s happy nowadays’ starts at age 5
’Never put off till tomorrow the fun you can have today’-200 times, twice a week from 14 to 161/2
‘Progress is lovely’-500 times, once a week, age 13 to 17
The entire civilization is based on instant gratification, too. If you’re feeling unhappy, take a gram or two of soma, the miracle drug. If you want somebody, take them. If your clothes are getting worn out, buy new ones; don’t mend the other, old ones. The thought ‘I want and can’t have’ is almost never experienced.
Being with one person for too long is greatly frowned upon. The very idea of marriage, love, and passion are grotesque. Multiple partners in one week or even one night is extremely common, and considered the norm. After all, as these people believe, ‘Everyone belongs to every one else’.
SUMMARY
The story itself follows a woman, Lenina Crowne, and a man, Bernard Marx. Both are workers at the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Center. Lenina is a properly promiscuous and pretty woman, who is sought after by short, physically under-par, unorthodox Bernard. The world treats Bernard with distain, and Bernard reciprocates the feeling; Lenina, however, finds him sweet, and agrees to go on a date with him. On their visit to a ‘Savage Reservation’ in New Mexico, Bernard and Lenina find an extremely unusual coincidence. A ‘civilized’ woman named Linda was lost long ago amongst the Savages, and remains with her son, John. John has never been outside of the reservation, being born (actually born) there. Lenina and Bernard bring the pair back to London with them, and there is a tremendous shift in the lives of Bernard, Lenina, Linda, and John. The boy, about the age of 18 is both awed and disgusted at this Brave New World.
WOULD I RECCOMMEND THIS BOOK?
I would highly recommend this book, but only for someone with a strong stomach and an open mind. Many subjects brought up in the book are uncomfortable ones; ones that our society prefers to not talk about. Extremely powerful, this book will keep you questioning your way of life and all ways of life